1&1 Hoses WordPress Sites on May 1, 2013

Migrate MySQL 4 DB NOW to MySQL 5 or Lose Your Site

1and1.com is "deactivating" MySQL 4 Databases on May 1st, 2013. All WordPress sites hosted on 1and1.com that have not migrated their databases from the old database to the new MySQL 5 databases may have their sites go offline. 1and1.com doesn't explicitly say the sites will go down, but their email states that they will be deactivating the MySQL 4 databases, which implies that sites not migrated may go dark.

If you host a database driven site on 1and1.com, log in, go to MySQL Administration and check what version of MySQL your site is using.

The information below applies only to Linux Hosting packages with MySQL 4 databases. MySQL 4 is being phased out and therefore any data held within a MySQL 4 database must be migrated into a new MySQL 5 database.

Why is the migration not done automatically?The migration can not be carried out automatically because of some features of MySQL 4 are not supported in MySQL 5 and in order to minimize the amount of transmission and handling of your private data. Because of this we are allowing customers to carry out the migration on their own, at their leisure.

How do I know if my databases are affected?Any database created in the 1&1 Control Panel that says MySQL 4 as the version, will need to be migrated to a newly created MySQL 5 database. You can check what version of MySQL your databases are by logging into your 1&1 Control Panel and clicking on MySQL Administration from the Domains & Web Space section.

Senior Member

joined:May 16, 2003
posts:992
votes: 0

I wonder what percentage this will affect? You have to have had a database created before they started automatically installing MySQL 5 databases, and they don't say in the FAQ when they started doing this.

A better approach would have been to identify customers with active MySQL 4 databases and proactively offer to assist them in the transition.

Yes. At the very least 1and1 could have limited the announcement to those who were actually affected. My hosting accounts weren't affected but I still received the announcement, causing me about an hour of anguish.